hoosierbgh

It's certainly true that the best team doesn't always win in March but what in the world does that have to do with Purdue?

Did they even add at least one good guard? Have they learned to play really good defense? Is their biggest/only real offensive threat no longer a significant liability on defense? The Purdue is UVA narrative is so lazy and uninformed.

You forgot #4. Have BIG refs every game in the tournament.

"The court ruled that a driver in front of McCaffery's vehicle had waved Hite across, and the jogger had not stopped or looked for traffic in the left lane. " It is unfortunate that the jogger made such a costly mistake but there lies the real problem. I've seen it numerous times with vehicles, a good Samaritan with no situational awareness waves someone out and that person frequently goes without even looking.

His recruiting work ethic alone is impressive, lol!

No need, we're already stuck with West Lafayette.

I'm not a fan of whining at any time but it makes a whole lot more sense to whine in February if that were to actually happen than it does to peremptorily whine now that it could possibly happen. Ideally, it would be great to have a clear backup for each position plus a couple other backups capable of covering multiple positions. In reality, recruiting is not like a NBA 2K draft, the players ultimately decide where they want to play and "come be a back up likely playing 10 minutes or less per game" is a hard sell. It is an especially hard sell in transfer portal recruiting.

Yes, I think the not trying to do too much thing is key for X.

Ware. If he is great relative to his talent level then he single handedly raises both the floor and ceiling for this team. His playing great also increases the versatility of this team and likely cures most if not all personnel fit issues. Although college bball is a guard's game, X doesn't have to play great, he just has to play solid for IU to be very good. Same with TG. Both MR and MM being good will raise the team's floor but I'm not sure either one of them being great moves the ceiling nearly as much as Ware being great would.

I don't pretend to be an expert but it seems like this kid could do especially well if he were to play beside a tall wing that can shoot and create, a big that can score, pass, and handle, another PG that can shoot and run a team, and for a coach with a long, successful NBA career. Seems like the others would benefit from this arrangement as well. Now, I wonder where that all could possibly happen...?

I'm looking forward even more to Edey slamming into Sparks, being forced to take a much longer shot when Sparks doesn't go flying out of the way and then pouting when Ware swats his stuff into the 3rd row.

Simply becoming a sophomore eliminates a lot of fouls since being a freshman post in the Big is worth at least two fouls per game.

Treloar voluntarily stepped aside in favor of Davis. Probably a smart decision on his part.

At only 7-1, this kid probably is one of their guard targets.

If you think Edey slamming into a stationary, vertical defender and then getting a foul call on the defender is a proper application of the rule, then it's no wonder you're whining about charges.. The verticality rule is missed more often than not and occurs far ,more frequently than charges.

Yes, it ultimately comes down to the quality of the refs. Eliminating charges and focusing even more on an more subjective call doesn't make a lot of sense. The refs already do a worse job getting the verticality rules correct than charges as it is. Worse, verticality comes into play far more often than charges, nearly every closely defended shot that isn't taken from the 3 point arc is likely to involve a verticality judgement. I doubt Edey would average half the points that he did if BIG refs could get the verticality call correct. Without a major change in the way he plays, he would be lucky to play 15 minutes in a game without fouling out were that rule called correctly.

I'm not sure why anyone is wasting even a second arguing about this. It should be pretty obvious to anyone who has watched college bball in the last decade exactly what will happen. During the first two months of the season the refs will hyper focus on the rule change to the point that it slows down the game and repeatedly stops momentum. Despite this hyper focus, the refs will still get the call wrong more often than not. Then just in time for conference season, the refs will conveniently forget the rule change ever occurred. Regardless of the time of the season, Edey will be allowed to bulldoze defenders out of his way, grab and hold the defenders arms and push opponents with superior rebounding position in the back. In short, even if there was a good chance that the rule changes would improve the game, the refs won't call it consistently and will soon forget about the rule change.

I agree on Sparks and Reneau on offense but Ware at the 5 on defense would be a waste of talent much of the time, IMO. Better to have either Sparks or Reneau with better lower body strength and a lower center of gravity to push opposing 5s farther from the basket and make use of Ware's length and athleticism to come in from the weak side to block shots. There may be times that Ware needs to play more in the post to challenge teams that are good at driving the ball but most of the time his tools should allow him to cover from the arc to the post and vice versa.

I think Sparks will play more than a lot of people do but the only way it will impact Ware is if Sparks pushes Reneau into more minutes at the 4. Ware is not primarily a post player and probably won't be competing with Sparks for minutes at the 5 spot.

Stand Pat and Watchthe Otherteam Makethrees are Archie's favorite players.

Somebody has to be in the Top 10 even in a down year. Neither Gonzaga nor Duke were as good as they normally are last season. Duke was solidly in bubble territory mid way through the conference season. They were also a better team at the end of the season than when Purdue beat them. Gonzaga improved as well. Purdue's biggest problem wasn't that their guards were freshman it was that their guards are extremely limited. That won't change this season. Their second biggest problem was that Edey was never going to get away with the BS in the tournament that he got away with during the conference and pre-conference seasons. They're a one trick pony whose one trick can easily be mitigated by officials. That hasn't changed either. If Purdue ends the season in the top 5, that says more about the season than it does about Purdue.

If he commits, I'd be happy to have him. If there's one thing we can be confident in, it is that Woody is not going to promise starts, playing time or otherwise blow smoke. A commitment would indicate he's at least open to coaching and competing for playing time. The kid definitely has some tools. If he is willing to accept coaching and works hard, he could be a dynamic player capable of making things happen on the court. My biggest concern would be his lack of strength, if he can improve any in that area and learn how to use the strength he has better, he could be a matchup nightmare for opposing teams.

The one bad loss doesn't invalidate their squad but their squad was never as good as it was hyped to be either. They got a tremendous amount of hype mileage out of beating subpar Gonzaga and Duke teams early and then were gifted a Charmin soft first half of the conference schedule. Worse for them, I don't really see that they addressed their glaring weaknesses in the offseason.

I don't see the square peg, round hole comment. If anything I think Reneau is the Yin to Ware's Yang. They both have things that they do well to complement each other but can be somewhat interchangeable depending on what is needed in a particular game. As of now, Ware is better on the perimeter and Reneau is better in the post. I think Ware spends more time at the 4 and Reneau more at the 5 on offense. Defensively, Reneau is almost certainly going to be guarding the opponents 5, unless Ware adds a lot of strength. Even if Ware has the strength, having him come from the weak side for blocks and using his length and athleticism to cover ground is a more effective use of his talents than pinning him in the post against the bruisers in the BIG.

It also seemed longer for Cardinal because he looked like he was 30 as a freshman and in his mid 40's by the time he graduated.